Diane is a Partner in the Business team and a member of our Charities team.
Commercial
Diane has considerable experience of advising businesses, charities and social enterprises, helping clients to ensure their products and services deliver revenue and to manage risk.
Diane’s experience covers a broad range of matters, such as commercialising products through exploitation (licensing IPR), securing channels to market (distribution, agency, franchising, framework agreements, procurement, terms and conditions (B2B and B2C)), outsourcing, competition and sales promotions, compliance and risk management, joint ventures, data protection, NDAs and website compliance.
Corporate
Diane has advised on a range of corporate projects, including mergers and acquisitions (with transaction value experience ranging from sub £1million up to £135million and where competition issues have been relevant), group restructurings, non-market fundraising, shareholder arrangements & exit, managing stakeholder relations, banking and re-financing (including intragroup and external facilities with values up to $100m) and company secretarial matters.
Charities
Diane is able to give clients the benefit of her own experience in the sector, having been a trustee of the Prince Philip Trust Fund, an Executive Board Member of Henley Women’s Regatta and a Board Member of Leap BMK – the County Sports Partnership for Buckinghamshire.
Diane has advised a variety of charity and social enterprise structures on constitutional and governance issues, mergers and restructuring, trading and commercial relationships, business contracts to supply services and company secretarial services.
Work highlights
- Advising a waste management company on its multi-million-pound purchases of a hazardous waste collection business and a chemical treatment plant.
- Advising on a tender for Manchester City Councils waste collection and street cleaning services, including negotiating the contract terms.
- Advising the members of an LLP on the retirement of a member and changes to the LLP agreement.
- Advising a property development business on incorporation and the creation of a group structure to mitigate development risk.
- Advising a US-based global tech and consumer electronics retailer on website terms of use, privacy policy, cookie policy and consumer rights.
- Advising a US-based web hosting company Global Compliance Director on compliance with relevant environmental legislation.
- Advising the individual shareholders of a City-based political and regulatory advisory firm on the sale to a global consultancy business.
- Advising the entrepreneur behind a luxury fragrance business on establishing a new European distribution network.
- Advising a leading bank on the terms of and security for a multi-million pound loan being made to a charity operating a private school.
- Advising the members of yacht club on the incorporation of the club and transfer of assets into a new company limited by guarantee.
- Advising the committee of an annual rowing event in Henley on the incorporation of the event as a company limited by guarantee and the future governance of the event.